News Article: How to Kill a Season: Montreal’s Mishandling of Carey Price

[WeThreeKings]

In Goal Magazine is a great online resource for goaltenders. I regularly check it and this article came up. I'm not going to say I agree 100% with everything in the article, but there are some points in it to consider.

http://ingoalmag.com/news/price-injury/

And there it was. A reliable media voice in Montreal confirmed what many Canadiens fans had suspected since November. It’s possible that Montreal’s fan base is the most pessimistic in hockey, but in this case, it had every reason to be. The team has handled Carey Price’s lower-body injury so poorly that placing any confidence in their timeline for his return would have been the height of naïveté.

Earlier that season, Price had missed eight games with a lower-body injury he had been playing through in Sochi. Price’s Olympic teammate Sidney Crosby commented that “I think it was something that didn’t just happen at the Olympics. I think it’s something he’s been battling for a while.†It’s possible that the Kreider collision was as debilitating as it was because it impacted the existing injury.

If other careful observers could discern Price’s difficulties, why couldn’t the club that had the most to lose if he went down to injury?

Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin insisted that “It was not because he came back too quick that he got injured […]. You always wonder if that was the case, but we looked into it really deeply and that was not the case.â€

Bergevin’s comments are hard to believe given the outcome of Price’s return, and the fact that Price had not been responding well to treatment. A trip to New York to obtain a second opinion was further evidence that all was not going well with Price’s convalescence. Given his difficult recovery, injury history, and on-ice mobility problems, the team’s decision to play Price and allow him to play through pain is unconscionable.

There's some embedded videos, tweets, etc. and further analysis in the article. It's worth checking out.

Click to read more...

 

[beowulf]

Let me get my tinfoil hat and then I'll read it.

 

[Stjonnypopo]

It's not as if Price wants to play, and even if he doesn't feel 100% he'll say he's good to go because he wants to go out there and help the team win.

Let's turn this non-issue into an issue.

 

[WeThreeKings]

It's not as if Price wants to play, and even if he doesn't feel 100% he'll say he's good to go because he wants to go out there and help the team win.

Let's turn this non-issue into an issue.

Like I said, I don't believe everything in this article. But, it does come back to, Price has had a lot of similar injuries, and fought through them, and to date he has not had a surgery.

Maybe he needs one? I don't know. I would think the team doctors and the specialists he has been seeing would recommend one if needed. However, they may give him a variety of options and recovery without surgery can be one of those options, the more likely one for him to take.

Keep in mind, though.. Price did play after the Kreider collision 'til the end of the period. The Ranger game this season, to the end of the period. He also finished the Edmonton game. That is a valid point, that when he's injured himself, he hasn't been pulled from the game early to mitigate further damage to the injury.. how much of that is on the player and the coaches? That's speculation and can't be corroborated without first hand knowledge.

 

[Scriptor]

Puh-lease. Montreal's medical staff is one of the best in the league. Trying to beat a dead horse alive? There is no conspiracy of the inept to risk Price's health or career…

Besides, we all know Price is only here to kill time until Fucale is ready for the NHL

 

[Sterling Archer]

Some injuries are such that they don't really heal but won't get necessarily get worse. If this was the Kreider injury, he had he greatest season of his career afterwards and I didn't hear anyone complain about it then.

Tripping on the puck in Edmknton must have either causes a new injury or finally made the chickens come home to roost.

In any case I don't see the Habs forcing Price back when they knew he wasn't ready. Not a snowballs chance in hell.

 

[HabsDood]

Well, let's sing him for 11M-8 years NOW!!! Hurry..

I hope he finally heals..

 

[hototogisu]

At the end of the day, if he's medically cleared to play (and there's no evidence to suggest incompetence on the part of the Habs' medical staff who are generally held in high regard) and he wants to play, the decision to play is Carey Price's.

Here's an alternate scenario: Price is medically cleared to play, Price wants to play, but Therrien keeps him out of the line-up for a month "just in case". How do you deal with the ****storm if that ever comes to light? And how do you risk going against (a) medical advice that he can play, and (b) Price himself, to keep the league MVP riding the bench just because you have a hunch he's not really healthy? People here would be calling for Therrien's head on a stick, not praising him for being extra careful with our meal ticket.

In any case, not all injuries are black and white. Same thing when Crosby was misdiagnosed twice a couple of years ago. Were the Pens trying to ruin him by playing him when he was not 100%? Of course not. You want what's best for the player but you can't force him not to play if he's medically cleared to play, especially a superstar on the level of Crosby or Price.

This article is little more than Monday morning QBing.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

We were winning and Condon was playing well, I have no idea why there would even be a conspiracy that they rushed him.

He was cleared and had a setback. It happens.

 

[Stoneburg]

My wife thinks that the timing of Price's injury, and his wife's pregnancy, is not coincidental. She says he needs the time off to be with his wife, that he cannot concentrate on hockey right now.

 

[Canadienna]

My wife thinks that the timing of Price's injury, and his wife's pregnancy, is not coincidental. She says he needs the time off to be with his wife, that he cannot concentrate on hockey right now.

You know what I had thought of this too, its not impossible.

Some things are more important than hockey.

 

[Bacchus1]

I really don't know what this article is suggesting. That Price has been battling an injury that re-occurs over time? If you've played sports before, you will realize that once you get injured in some joint after puberty, that joint is always going to be more susceptible to injury. I don't know how many times I sprained my right ankle, but it was way more than my left. The thing is all you can do it rest and strengthen it. Price had something like 3 months off during the off season ... that should be plenty.

If he needed surgery, I'm sure one of the two doctors he visited would have counseled him on that.

So yeah, I don't know what the article is suggesting.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

My wife thinks that the timing of Price's injury, and his wife's pregnancy, is not coincidental. She says he needs the time off to be with his wife, that he cannot concentrate on hockey right now.

Wouldn't he be better off being with her when she's further into her pregnancy?

 

[Dannyhab]

They should just have the darn surgery and get ready for next year. Anyone who has had a knee injury will know its the only way to completely fix it.

 

[Intangir]

They should just have the darn surgery and get ready for next year. Anyone who has had a knee injury will know its the only way to completely fix it.

Except EVERY surgery has a risk factor to it and can end up potentially worsening the injury if the doctor makes a tiny mistake, if problems occur during the procedure or if you just heal wrongly despite rehab and optimal treatment.

I was playing for the Montreal Maroons in Midget Espoir back in the mid 2000's, busted my left knee, tried to get surgery so I could keep playing, it backfired terribly because of horrible luck and ended up not only stopping me from playing hockey ever again, but also hindering my daily life. I even had to have subsequent surgeries done to repair the damage inflicted the first time.

Anyways, if you can handle the injury without it worsening or becoming chronic, you're almost always better putting off the surgery, at least in my experience.

 

[Whitesnake]

Nobody is scared about Price injury problems? You would soon give him a freakin extension even if he seems to have trouble staying healthy?

 

[GREMLIN]

Nobody is scared about Price injury problems? You would soon give him a freakin extension even if he seems to have trouble staying healthy?

I'm at the point where I hope he misses the full season and comes back healthy next year, only thing I'm hoping for is a top 5 pick and a coaching change.

 

[ottawa]

I wouldn't mind writing this season off either, let him take a year off and heal.

It would take a miracle for the habs to make the playoffs AND go far in the playoffs...Jesus Price isn't actually Jesus.

 

[Poulet Kostopoulos]

LOL That's why I follow the Habs media and this board only very very sparingly and leisurely nowadays. I visited RDS.ca for the first time in a month and the first three stories that popped up to my face are off-ice incident with Galchy, off-ice incident with Beaulieu, locker-room incident with PK. Here, the hot threads that jumped in my face: fire coach, trade... and mis-management of Price, and talk about tanking this season. WOW! From Heaven to Hell so fast. It's insane. But this is Habs-land alright.

I'm glad I don't follow this religiously anymore; otherwise, I'd be depressed too...

 

[Bacchus1]

LOL That's why I follow the Habs media and this board only very very sparingly and leisurely nowadays. I visited RDS.ca for the first time in a month and the first three stories that popped up to my face are off-ice incident with Galchy, off-ice incident with Beaulieu, locker-room incident with PK. Here, the hot threads that jumped in my face: fire coach, trade... and mis-management of Price, and talk about tanking this season. WOW! From Heaven to Hell so fast. It's insane. But this is Habs-land alright.

I'm glad I don't follow this religiously anymore; otherwise, I'd be depressed too...

What do you want to see and discuss while you are here if you don't want to hear the opinions of armchair GMs/scouts/coaches? The drama about the players is lame, but that is just a function of modern mainstream journalism. The rest is what I expect to hear, and will entertain even if I don't accept other's positions. Perhaps you should reevaluate your expectations and revise your leisure habits to reflect them.

 

[Bacchus1]

I'm at the point where I hope he misses the full season and comes back healthy next year, only thing I'm hoping for is a top 5 pick and a coaching change.

I'm not too far from this opinion myself now. I think by the time Price makes it back we will be out of a playoff position, and the teams psyche/confidence will be in the gutter. It might be nice to get a high draft pick rather than fighting to slip in to the playoffs. A top 5 pick would set us up for years.

That is, unless we get some miracle trade that addresses our top 6. Since both Semin and Kassian failed to get that role, we are too week to actually have a threatening club. Chucks becoming a beast would do it, too. Let's see what happens. I don't want the team to lose on purpose though. That is lame.

 

[Poulet Kostopoulos]

What do you want to see and discuss while you are here if you don't want to hear the opinions of armchair GMs/scouts/coaches? The drama about the players is lame, but that is just a function of modern mainstream journalism. The rest is what I expect to hear, and will entertain even if I don't accept other's positions. Perhaps you should reevaluate your expectations and revise your leisure habits to reflect them.

I wasn't expecting anything else on this board -- it's the typical panic mode, knee-jerk reaction here. I was just curious if I would see something different. As far as I can tell, the team didn't change much except injuries but some people want to nuke everything, so to speak. (Of course, I don't want to generalize as not everyone here is part of the panic squad.)

 

[WeThreeKings]

We're getting slightly off topic now, but I see how it's relevant.

Again, we'll never know if he was rushed back or rushed himself back. The point of the article that I wanted to highlight is, it was clear Price was injured, multiple times, and finished out periods.

Sure, it's a knee but this is exactly why concussion protocol is in place. When you notice a player has an injury, you have to pull them out of the game. This happens usually with players since they play shifts, but rarely with goaltenders. I would like to see goaltenders, not just Price, but goaltenders, if in a collision or showing clear signs of impediments due to a lower body injury, pulled from the game to be evaluated.

We have multiple situations of Price finishing a game or period with an obvious injury that hampered him for the remainder of said game/period.